taken five trips to the mideast and held discussions with 14 leaders in the region; turkey, israel, jordan and iraq. i've been to all those countries, most of them more than once. my aim has been to make sure that we're all prepared with options for the challenges ahead, both the near-term issues in iran and in syria and longer-term issues resulting from the arab spring. there are some countries i haven't visited yet, but i plan to. china and india are high on my list, and so is russia. even though i've not yet visited miss cow, i have had several -- moscow, i have had several productive meetings with my russian counterpart here in washington, d.c., in europe and by video teleconference several times. i could go on. as you can tell, i'm working hard on my friends list. one final thought. during all of these travels, our servicemen and women are always foremost in my thoughts. they and their families have been through a lot. they are an inspirational bunch. i saw this when i was honored to go to london as the head of the united states delegation to the paraolympics. our athletes, especially